Introduction

This document is a brief introduction to the Master’s Thesis for Engineering students at Temple. Disclaimer: This document is incomplete! You are ultimately responsible for making sure you meet all the thesis criteria. If something important has been missed, please feel free to edit this document yourself, or to email Dr. Obeid (iobeid@temple.edu) with the information.

Earning a Master’s Degree requires that you do a Proposal and a Thesis. Both are comprised of a written document and an oral presentation. The oral presentation is open to the public, although the committee will question the candidate in private after the presentation. The oral presentation should be a summary of the written document. In other words, you should not plan on writing a bare-bones document that will be fleshed out during your talk. Instead, you should plan on writing a fully detailed document that you will summarize during your talk.

Thesis Committee

Your Master’s Thesis will be reviewed and voted on by a three person committee comprised of your adviser plus two others. For Bioengineering students, there are no real restrictions on who these faculty members should be. Anyone within the College of Engineering is acceptable, and members from other departments or even the medical school should be acceptable as well provided that your adviser agrees. For non-Bioengineering students, at least one committee member other than your adviser must be from your department.

It is a good rule of thumb to select your committee early in the semester you hope to do your Thesis Proposal. Once you and your adviser have selected a committee, you should approach the members in person and ask if they would be interested in serving on your committee. Present them with a brief (one page) written summary of your project so that they see what they are getting themselves into. Giving them a resume or CV would add a nice professional touch.

Plan on getting your completed Thesis (Proposal or Final) to your committee members at least three weeks ahead of time. That will allow them plenty of time to read and make comments ahead of time that could otherwise sideline your presentation. Follow up on your committee members before the presentation to ask if they have any questions or if there is something they think you should change.

Presentation

Once you have a committee, work with them to schedule a date and time for your presentation. Make sure to plan your presentation well in advance. There are plenty of places within the Engineering Building where you can make your presentation. To reserve one of the building’s Smart Classrooms, contact Ms. Yvette Gibson. To reserve the Dean’s Conference Room, contact Mr. Walt Wolansky. Note that the Dean’s Conference Room seats a lot fewer people than the smart classrooms.

Your Thesis Proposal and Thesis Defense must not occur in the same semester. You should be registered for Thesis I when you do the proposal and Thesis II when you do the Defense. It is acceptable to do these during either of the summer sessions, provided you are appropriately registered.

The Document

The College of Engineering has precious few guidelines for the actual proposal or thesis document. This is apparently by design, in order to accommodate the fact that there are many different styles of projects and no one document format is the best fit for all projects. However, for most people, the document should cover at least the following:

• Literature Review: You must demonstrate that you have a sound understanding of all the published peer-review literature relevant to your research. The literature review should be more than just a summary of individual research papers. Rather, it should explain how those papers are related to each other, so that the Review paints a complete picture of the state-of-the-art in your field. Properly done, the literature review should leave the reader aware of the fact that there is a gap in the literature that has not been addressed – a gap that your research will address. Although your review should primarily paraphrase those articles, you are allowed to quote text verbatim provided that you clearly identify that text as being a direct quote, and you reference it properly.
• Research: For students doing the Proposal, you should explain, in detail, what the work is you will be doing, and what the justification is for that work. You should explain what results you expect, what contingency plan you have if the expected results are not met, what data you expect to collect, and how that data will be analyzed. In short, you must demonstrate that you have thought through every detail of your proposed work. Students doing their Defense should follow these same guidelines, except you are discussing the research you have already done, not the work you are proposing to do. Avoid lengthy descriptions of work you did that doesn’t contribute to final results; it is common for research to take “wrong paths” that take a lot of time but don’t yield important results. Don’t clutter your report with these details, unless it is somehow relevant.
• Results: For proposal students, you may want to discuss any work you have done so far (preliminary results). This is often handy for convincing your thesis committee that the work you plan on doing is feasible and within your capabilities. For students doing their defense, this should be your complete results.
• Discussion: This is more relevant for students doing their defense than their proposal. Be sure to put your results in context – explain how your results fit in with the published literature, and what the interpretation should be of your data.
• Timeline: This is only for proposal students – it is a good idea to give your committee at least some idea about your ideal timeline for completing the proposed research.
• References: List all your references! You can use any reference format style you like.

Document Formatting

There are no formal requirements for how long your proposal/thesis should be. The only appropriate answer is “long enough to cover all the above items.” Most proposals are in the 20-40 page range.

The Graduate School has guidelines that cover the format requirements – in terms of fonts, margins, etc. You can read about all these in great detail at www.temple.edu/dissertationhandbook. Note that many of the requirements are for the final Thesis and not for the proposal. So, for example, your proposal does not need to have a signature page, although it should have a cover page. Although you are not technically required to have your proposal meet these style requirements, you may as well do so since your proposal will eventually serve as the foundation of your thesis.

External Links

Here is a “College of Engineering – Master’s Thesis and Proposal” Guide that was procurred from Dr. Sendaula. It contains much of the same information but its worth a look.